The SIG has seen significant interest around the need to redress the balance of project management practice between sound project processes and inspiring people management. To date, the profession has not found a silver bullet to combat project failure and poor performance. This has led to frustration and disappointed for sponsors, end users and those who have worked so hard to deliver projects. We have introduced more elaborate processes and increased the use of technology without necessarily improving performance. We believe that a greater focus on the people aspects of project delivery can have a significant impact on performance.

The current APM Body of Knowledge covers the people aspects of projects in one of its seven sections. However, we are now seeing increased acknowledgment that the subjectivity and complexity of human beings runs as a thread throughout all project management practice. The recent Risk SIG conference, which we were involved in supporting, highlighted just how significant an impact interpersonal issues have on the discipline of risk management. We believe this is the same for all other aspects of project management.

The People SIG’s vision is to inspire project leadership through excellence in people skills. We aim to influence the profession and awaken its appetite by engaging our project management colleagues, sponsors and other stakeholders. We accomplish this through regular one-day development workshops and also delivering talks and workshops across the PM community.

Our one-day conference is dedicated to people aspects of project management. This highly interactive day will allow you to explore and work with the assetts and lenses we have developed. The day will be topped and tailed with thought-provoking key note speakers on the secrets of building a respected project management consultancy, the inside track on the leadership, client and integrated team working that delivered the T5 construction phase and what we can learn on leadership from the Kenyan Maasai tribesmen.

We hope you will enjoy and would be delighted to have you as members of the SIG. For details please contact us peoplesig@apm.org.uk